Question

PLZ HELP!
the story is The Cloak
In Russian society in the 1800s, a person's social status depended entirely on his or her job, and most jobs were very bureaucratic and impersonal. In this introduction, the narrator explains that he's not going to name the department being discussed because he does not wish to cause any unpleasantness. Do you think the narrator is trying to protect the department or criticize it?

Answer 1

The narrator is trying to protect the department.

Explanation:

'The Cloak' is one of the collection from the Russian short stories which is written by Nikolay Gogol. So in this story, the very first sentence that the author begins with is by saying, ‘In the department of __’ he didn’t mentioned the name of the department and just left the name with a blank space. He further stated that it’s better not to cause any unpleasantness.

From this we clearly understand that Nikolay is trying to protect the department. Because if this wouldn’t have been the case then he would have revealed the name of the department. And this is also because in today’s society people judge other person easily merely on the basis of his job.